


A Future Examined

by Eratoschild



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 15:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18813715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eratoschild/pseuds/Eratoschild
Summary: In the weeks before Anne leaves for Queens, Diana contemplates the future.





	A Future Examined

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maidenjedi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maidenjedi/gifts).



  
  
They didn’t have much longer together, Anne and Diana, before Anne went off to high school and Diana settled into keeping house with her mother, watching after Minnie May, cooking, cleaning and being a proper lady of the house until the time came that she’d have her own house to keep. It was only a matter of weeks now until her days of scrapes and stories and adventures would give way to her mother’s stern eye teaching her, uninterrupted, how to be a proper wife.

 

She didn’t begrudge Anne the opportunity, but sometimes Diana envied her. Shed known Jane and Ruby all their lives and they were dear friends but Anne had shaken them all up in a way that no one else ever could hope to. Diana always knew what her path in life would be, her mother had always insisted. No daughter of Elizabeth Barry’s would attend a high school or work outside the home. Her mother was resolute on this point and her father would never naysay.

 

Until Anne Shirley came along, provoking a small but real current of restlessness within her. While it wasn’t enough to drive her to even consider defying her upbringing, it’s enough to make her wonder, sometimes in secret, in the back of her mind, just what a different life would be like. She recalled the days when her mother lamented just how much time she spent reading,

 

What would it be like to go on to high school, to go off and see some more of the world before coming back to sweet, sleepy Avonlea to marry and settle down? Even if it were just Charlottetown? What would it be like to have a teaching license, to run a schoolhouse like their beloved Miss Stacey, to teach students of her own and watch them go on to study at Queen’s Academy just as she had? Of course she would never know herself but Diana could imagine. If all the time she’d spent reading, as her mother so often lamented, had taught her one thing, imagination was certainly that and there was, as Anne was fond of saying, such scope for imagination in envisioning a future she was never to have,

 

She would marry. One of her old school mates one day, perhaps. Or maybe she would meet a man from another town, someday marry and go to live somewhere else? What would it be like to live somewhere away from the only home she’d ever known? Would she come back to visit? Would her friends, her family come to visit her if it happened? How many letters would they write in between? Would the dark, dashing man of her dreams come to Avonlea and sweep her away? It was quite the romantic schoolgirl notion and she caught herself laughing at the very thought. But what if it were someone she already knew? Wasn’t that a strange thought, that her future husband might already be right there under her nose?

 

Or what if she were not to marry at all? Diana could not truly imagine that, the very idea was absolutely unthinkable, but some did it somehow, she knew. She was sure she would never do so by choice at least, she wanted a husband and a house full with children.

 

But wouldn’t it be nice to do something else first? Diana certainly thought it might be, to be able to say she had, to have the memories and the souvenirs to look back on, to be able to smile wistfully in a secret moment with herself, or to regale her friends as they all told their own adventures in turn when they visited at each other’s homes.

 

But she would keep her little stories from their club, away and safe. She’d take them out from time to time and read them. Perhaps someday she’d write another, though no one would ever see. Or perhaps she would let Anne read it like old times and they’d share a good laugh. It was a nice thought at least. Perhaps one day she would have a daughter just like her, and she would tell her of their stories and their little adventures in Avonlea. Anne and Jane and Ruby would surely have children of their own as well, and they would all go to the Avonlea School and church picnics. And before that, there would be each other’s weddings. She sighed to think how beautiful they’d all be in their own turn, even Jane.

 

This evening, she and Anne would go off walking with Jane and Ruby. Undoubtedly, talk would turn to current beaux and future husband’s as it always seemed to when Ruby was around. Anne has often complained that Ruby was far too conscious of boys, but Diana knew the truth was that Anne simply did not want them to start teasing her about Gilbert Blythe, though they always did. How could they not?

 

Secretly she was certain that Anne and Gilbert would marry someday, No matter how much Anne protested the idea. Secretly, she was certain that Anne knew this too though she would never admit to it. But Gilbert made no secret of his liking for Anne. No one could miss the way he looked at her. Or, to be frank, the way she looked at him when she thought no one was watching. It was no use pointing it out to her, Anne vehemently denied it so Diana had long since given up trying and only looked upon such instances with fond amusement and an occasional giggle with the other girls should they chance to witness such a moment as well.

 

For now though, she’d spend what time she had with Anne and the other girls, they would while away their last carefree hours, dreaming of what would come. Diana would be content staying home and learning to be a wife, learning to be a mother, waiting for her husband to come into her life- or reveal himself. she was sure she would.


End file.
